Kia Dealers Build Corporate Success

LONDON – Jan 28, 2014: At the same time as Kia recorded best-ever
sales figures in 2013, its dealers up and down the country saw more and
more business and company car users beating a path to their door.

Strong increases in contract hire, public sector and leasing business
helped push corporate sales – excluding rental and Motability - for
the Kia brand to new levels, delivering important commercial success for
Kia’s 177 dealers throughout the UK.

A remarkable increase in Public Sector sales saw Kia’s performance
in this sector rise from virtually zero in 2010 to more than 2,500 cars in
2013 and Kia Contract Hire numbers rocketed from 221 to 3,200 in the same
period. Sportage, cee’d and Rio all performed strongly –
accounting for more than 12,000 sales in 2013.

John Hargreaves, Head of Fleet and Remarketing at Kia Motors (UK)
Limited said: “Increasing business sales through our network has been
central to our plan over recent years and we are now seeing a very strong
return from that strategy. We took a decision to carefully manage our sales
into the big fleet channels such as daily rental and Motability and we have
provided support for our dealers to help them understand and maximise the
local business possibilities and to compete effectively.

“Overall that means we saw a 37 per cent increase in this area of
business during 2013 – with strong growth in all channels including
independent contract hire, Kia contract hire and, rewardingly, in the
Public Sector,” he added.

That has meant an increase in business registrations via the dealer
network from just under 3,100 in 2010 to more than 14,000 vehicles last
year. That represents a market share of 2.7 per cent – excluding
daily rental, Motability and demonstrators.

Hargreaves commented that one major area of success for dealers has been
in sales to Small and Medium Enterprises – where cars are bought very
much in the same way as retail cars. That performance increased by 30 per
cent in 2013.

Kia is targeting continued growth in these channels in 2014 to further
focus profitable and sustainable business through the dealer network
– although centrally negotiated large fleet business will still be
carefully managed and handled by Kia centrally to both ensure an
appropriate presence in those markets and to protect residual values.